The NHL, the team owners, the players, the NHLPA, and the NHL governors are all dick heads.

With the LA Kings coming off their first Stanley Cup winning season, it would have been great to have seen them try and defend their championship. It would have been great as well to see the new powerhouse that's the Minnesota Wild take the ice. But nope. Fuck these guys.

I don't even know what the hell they're fighting over aside from profit sharing. Fuck 'em. NHL players get paid enough. Owners are dicks. And we all know the people that run the NHL are retarded.

Three lock outs in 20 years? That's terrible. When was the last time the NFL or MLB lost an entire season because of a lock out? I know the MLB lost the rest of the 1994 season to one but nothing since. The NFL had a lock out in 2011 but the full season ended up being played.

Whatever. I'll just play NHL 13. It's the only full season of NHL we'll get this year.

Actually took in a junior hockey (Junior B) game on Thursday night for the first time. The arena not even 10 minutes away from my place and it only cost $10 to get in. Unlike the 100+ you pay to see an NHL game.

It was the season opener for the Richmond Sockeyes (the home team) playing against the Grandview Steelers (who were wearing Boston Bruins inspired jerseys BOOOOOOOO) and it was a great fast paced game of hockey which the Sockeyes won 5-3. They played their asses off and both goalies made some incredible saves as well. My Dad (long time hockey fan) and I had a great time and we're definitely going to more games.

And of course there's NHL 13 which is a great subsititute until the real thing gets going again.

NHL lockout: League cancels remaining November games

There is one category in which the NHL betters its rival leagues: number of games lost due to work stoppages.

And the NHL’s lead just keeps getting bigger and bigger. With November’s games now washed away — meaning the league’s best guess for a start to a short season is now Dec. 1 — the NHL will have wiped away 2,042 games in the last 20 years, 326 regular season games so far this season.

The Jan. 1 Winter Classic featuring the Maple Leafs and Red Wings was not cancelled — yet — but the league faced a Nov. 2 deadline to pay the University of Michigan another $250,000 on top of the $100,000 it has already deposited. The league is paying close to $3 million for the right to play in the Big House.

With no talks planned and both sides issuing statements about how sorry they are that things have gotten this far, the business side of the league would appear to be in a shambles.

“The whole thing has affected the NHL’s momentum. It’s Momentum Interruptus,” said Brian Cooper, a former executive with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and now president of S and E Sponsorship Group.

“They had a Stanley Cup team in one of the biggest markets in the U.S. (L.A.) that has re-awoken to hockey.

“They’re launching on one of the biggest networks (NBC) that was going to cross-promote the heck out of weekend games.

“But more importantly, the owners are going to be losing a portion of the season. It’s tough to put a number on it. They could come back like the NBA coming back (from a lockout last year) on Christmas Day. They had some great success with it. But the NHL is not the NBA.”

It is of course possible that not all games are lost, that the league could come to a deal with the players’ association and salvage a season, if perhaps a slightly shortened one.

“We acknowledge and accept that there is joint responsibility in collective bargaining and, though we are profoundly disappointed that a new agreement has not been attained to this point, we remain committed to achieving an agreement that is fair for the players and the clubs — one that will be good for the game and our fans,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement.

The league’s move has an overall effect of shrinking hockey-related revenue — which hit $3.3 billion last season — by about $720 million if no games is are played in November.

Fewer games means less revenue. That will make it harder for the players to stick to their demand that current contracts are paid in full. If, say, only 66 games are played this season, the NHL could argue players should only be paid 66/82nds of their salary.

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr issued a statement, repeating the union’s request for talks without “pre-conditions” stand and took issue with the league’s “take-it-or-leave-it” approach.

“The message from the owners seems to be: if you don't give us exactly what we want, there is no point in talking,” said Fehr. “They have shown they are very good at delivering deadlines and demands, but we need a willing partner to negotiate.

“We hope they return to the table in order to get the players back on the ice soon.”

Honestly if I was the NHL I'd think about having a shorter schedule like around 80 games. Their old way having Hockey going from September to June is too much. I think the one thing this lockout showed is people like hockey but not in that extremely long schedule,

Honestly if I was the NHL I'd think about having a shorter schedule like around 80 games. Their old way having Hockey going from September to June is too much. I think the one thing this lockout showed is people like hockey but not in that extremely long schedule,

I think the NFL gets it pretty much perfect - 4 mos of regular season, a little over a month of playoffs. The other 3 major sports (NHL, NBA, MLB) would do themselves a service by shortening the regular season by 10 games or more (70-72 games seems about right for NHL/NBA, maybe less since they have such lengthy playoffs; MLB should keep their playoffs as is but shave 10 games, which would be 2 wks, off the reg season).

People in Canada would riot if the season was shortened, out of curiosity Arturo where are you from? It is always so jarring seeing how different the reaction to hockey is in the states vs here in Canada. I do like the shortened season though, it just sucks that the NFL owns the winter/fall or hockey would fit perfectly in the same schedule.

I live in Albany most people are pretty big into hockey here, though its dwarfed by football, basketball and baseball. Most are Rangers and Devils fans some are Bruins and Sabre fans, my team is the Islanders by the way, and my favorite of the Canadian hockey teams is Montreal.

I feel if hockey would start in the late fall/winter and go to June that would be perfect it can compete with basketball. But yeah competing with football is rough most Americans, me included don't really pay attention till after at least the regular season of football is over. Sort of feel bad about that since I really do like watching Hockey but its tough to find on tv for one thing and I generally think of watching Basketball before Hockey.

Thats why is say a shortened season would be better, it would make things more exciting, it's tough getting excited about when it's almost still summer. It's same beef I have with Baseball. Why all those games!

Glad to see that the Kings were able to come back (though it was a shoot-out win) after terrible officiating all night. That Burrows shootout attempt was highly questionable and if he had scored, it should've been waived off. Though I doubt that it would've been considering the shitty reffing.

San Jose, Chicago, Boston and New Jersey are currently undefeated.

I would support a shortened schedule as well. January to May. That's all we'd need. Start play-offs mid-April and do a best of five games for rounds 1 and 2 and then best of 7 for the remaining.

The Pittsburgh vs Montreal game last night was a fun one to watch. I now have my doubts about Vokoun. Don't want to see the Penguins over play Fleury again and have him suck in the playoffs like last year.

The playoffs have also been changed, going to a division-based system. The top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs with the remaining top two clubs in each conference qualifying as wild cards. So in theory, for example, you could have five teams from one division make the playoffs and only three from another.

They will have different Division Names. Not happy to see Detroit out of a division with Chicago.. Division C is a beast.

So does anyone think the Islanders have any shot at all or will be another disappointing playoff bouncing for them? I'd love it if they'd make it to the finals and take the cup since I was too young too watch their 4 cup victories. Well if they do get eliminated my interest will take a hit but hope either the Islanders take it or a Canadian team like the Canadians, Senators or Maple Leafs. Just not the Canucks they are such scumbags! Hope they get eliminated in the first round!

1. Luongo is one of the top five goaltenders in the NHL. The numbers speak for themselves. Look them up before shooting your dumbass mouth off again.

A top goaltender shouldn't get benched in the playoffs like Luongo did in game three. And this isn't the first time he's been benched in a big playoff game. Any other player who is top 5 in any sport get benched in a playoff game? So suck it with your shitty canuck team.